Lesson 25Revelation 11: 6-14 |
The two witnesses are given 3 ½ years to carryout their assignment of prophecies, which is not a long time. However, when you look at ALL that has taken place, you would think the unbelievers would be running to know God. As it is today there will be some who will refuse to admit that they have been serving the wrong god. In Revelation 11:7, the beast will kill the witnesses to stop them and their prophecies. Let us look deeper into verse 7:
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
First, the witnesses cannot be killed until they have completed their assignment. Remember that in verse 11:5, if man will hurt them, fire will come out of their mouths and devour their enemies. Secondly, Satan and his forces have no power over them until God grants it, which is not until verse 7, or 1260 days. God has a plan that even includes the use of Satan.
God has used Satan so many times that it would be funny if souls were not being hurt. Satan wanted to be God and yet he does not have the power to prevent God from using him, nor does it seem that he knows he is being used. Let us look at some of these times of Satan's inability to interfere with God's plans.
* With Job: Satan had to ask God before he did anything to Job
* With Jesus: Satan could not stop him or hurt him until God sent the time
* In Revelation: Satan cannot stop God from completing His plan for His Kingdom.
Why would anybody serve a god that cannot control his/her own destiny?
We will now examine the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit. This beast represents the Antichrist or False messiah because of where he comes from. He does not come down to earth, but up to earth. What is more interesting, he does not sit high and come down, but he sits low and comes up. He then makes war with the witnesses of God, which the unbelievers enjoyed. Why, because they were tired of the witnesses' prophecies and the pain they caused. This is true for some people today, if someone speaks the word of God and it causes pain and problems, they cannot wait until someone or something takes them out of the picture. Instead of us seeking and accepting God's word and changing our lives, many of us would rather rid ourselves of His word so that we can keep on doing our thing.
If we read the verse slowly, we will see that this beast had to "make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them." The word "war" means battle or fight and the word "overcome" means to subdue. So read this verse with these definitions: make battle or fight against them, and shall subdue them… Then the beast was able to kill them. Why is this important? In order for the Antichrist or false messiah to be accepted by the unbelievers, he must defeat God's messengers. These unbelievers know that all that is happening is from God according to Revelation 6:15-17 and 9:20-21. Understand that no one and nothing can stop God from completing His plan. Therefore, if you do not know God through Jesus Christ you need to take time to invite Him into your life. In addition, if you have fallen away from Him you need to ask for His forgiveness (I John 1:9). Remember, even with all that is going on in Revelation, God is still reaching out to the human race to come home to Him. As God states in His word in II Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
After the beast is allowed to kill the witnesses, their bodies remain in the streets 3 ½ days. The city of Jerusalem is the place where Jesus was crucified. It is spiritually labeled Sodom and Egypt. You may ask why these names? Sodom stands for filthiness and wickedness (Genesis 18:20; 19:1 -29, Jude 1:7, 2 Peter 2:6 - 8), Yet even in Matthew 10:14 -15 we see Jesus saying that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for these unbelievers. Why? Because they did not know Jesus and the way back to God like the world now knows. Jerusalem cannot use this excuse because they know what is in God's word and they know what is going on NOW according to Revelation 6:15 - 17. Egypt stands for oppression (Genesis 15:13 - 14, Exodus 5; 6:6). Jesus has John to write "…the great city, which is spiritually…" meaning that these people were spiritually like these two places. How can this city, which was where people came to meet God and hear from Him, turn into these places of Sodom and Egypt? Is this not like many of the churches of today?! Instead of guiding people to God, these churches are keeping people from the true God and turning them to false gods who are corrupt pastors, elders, deacons or other false members of the church. Of course this is not true for all churches, but it does mean that we as the true Body of Christ must be on guard about our lives. Remember that we are representatives of Christ and we reflect Him to the world. Our lives must line up with the word of God - not what we think it says, but what it really says.
Why were the bodies left in the streets for these 3 ½ days? There are various schools of thought on this:
- Each day stood for the years of torment they went through.
- This period stood for the time period of Jesus' earthly ministry.
- This period equals the number of days Jesus was in the grave.
In verses 11 - 14, we see that this festival is short-lived. For after the 3 ½ days, God allows the spirit of Life to enter the prophets. Look at what is being stated here: only God gives life. He is the only one that controls all things including the timing of when He takes life. (See Romans 8:28) The prophets' deaths were part of God's plan to bring lost souls to Him. In the moment it takes to give life is all of the time it takes to turn joy to great terror. God again lets the world know that He is in control and that the prophets were His witnesses by saying "…come up hither" with a great voice out of heaven. In this timeframe, they went from being ridiculed to being honored in the face of their enemies. (Psalm 23:5; 27:1-3, 5 - 6, Isaiah 54:14 - 17, John 17:14, 23) There is a great earthquake and it causes the destruction of a tenth part of the city and seven thousand human beings to get those remaining to give glory to the God of heaven and not to the Antichrist or False messiah.
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